The Assassination of Leo Ryan

Leo Ryan

Leo Ryan's Assassin, Larry Layton

     Leo Ryan was a US Representative of California's 11th district from 1973-1978. He spent time in Newfoundland saving seals and spoke out for more Congressional oversight over the CIA. In 1976, the mutilated body of his friend was found, who was an ex-member of The People's Temple, a cult who had a colony in Guyana called the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project." Leo Ryan was unsettled by the death of his friend, and went to visit the Temple in Guyana. He spoke out against the cult, and went there to conduct an investigation. There he found terrified people, desperate to get out. When he tried to help people escape, his airplane was ambushed by members and he was shot repeatedly and killed. That evening, the cult went on to commit a mass homicide, by convincing about 900 of it's members to drink grape Kool-Aid spiked with cyanide. While the situation in Guyana and the murder of King Duncan on the surface look like much different stories, they bear many similarities.


     Duncan was assassinated because he was getting in the way of the Macbeths' quest  for power. Lady Macbeth wanted her and her husband to rule, and thus she persuaded Macbeth to commit the heinous crime against his friend. Similarly, Leo Ryan stood in the way of the success of The People's Temple. He wanted to shut them down, and thus he was assassinated, along with several others he was with.


     Both Leo Ryan and Duncan did nothing wrong to make them deserve murder. Duncan ruled his land and people, and Leo Ryan was trying to save the people trapped in the Guyanese cult. A major difference between the two murders, however, was the effect on the assassins. Macbeth immediately began to see hallucinations, and was haunted by what he had done. On the other hand, it is not apparent that Larry Layton felt much remorse, as he had killed others before Ryan. Tragically, he was given parole just 18 years after these murders of innocent men.